I'm an Assistant Professor of Economics at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, a Research Fellow with the Oakland, California-based Independent Institute, a Senior Fellow with the Beacon Center of Tennessee, and a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics. I'm on Twitter: @artcarden.

Let's Be Blunt: It's Time to End the Drug War

April 20 is the counter-culture “holiday” on which lots and lots of people come together to advocate marijuana legalization (or just get high). Should drugs—especially marijuana—be legal? The answer is “yes.” Immediately. Without hesitation. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200 seized in a civil asset forfeiture. The war on drugs has been a dismal failure. It’s high time to end prohibition. Even if you aren’t willing to go whole-hog and legalize all drugs, at the very least we should legalize marijuana.

For the sake of the argument, let’s go ahead and assume that everything you’ve heard about the dangers of drugs is completely true. That probably means that using drugs is a terrible idea. It doesn’t mean, however, that the drug war is a good idea.

Prohibition is a textbook example of a policy with negative unintended consequences. Literally: it’s an example in the textbook I use in my introductory economics classes (Cowen and Tabarrok, Modern Principles of Economics if you’re curious) and in the most popular introductory economics textbook in the world (by N. Gregory Mankiw).The demand curve for drugs is extremely inelastic, meaning that people don’t change their drug consumption very much in response to changes in prices. Therefore, vigorous enforcement means higher prices and higher revenues for drug dealers. In fact, I’ll defer to Cowen and Tabarrok—page 60 of the first edition, if you’re still curious—for a discussion of the basic economic logic:

The more effective prohibition is at raising costs, the greater are drug industry revenues. So, more effective prohibition means that drug sellers have more money to buy guns, pay bribes, fund the dealers, and even research and develop new technologies in drug delivery (like crack cocaine). It’s hard to beat an enemy that gets stronger the more you strike against him or her.

People associate the drug trade with crime and violence; indeed, the newspapers occasionally feature stories about drug kingpins doing horrifying things to underlings and competitors. These aren’t caused by the drugs themselves but from the fact that they are illegal (which means the market is underground) and addictive (which means demanders aren’t very price sensitive).

Those same newspapers will also occasionally feature articles about how this or that major dealer has been taken down or about how this or that quantity of drugs was taken off the streets. Apparently we’re to take from this the idea that we’re going to “win” the war on drugs. Apparently. It’s alleged that this is only a step toward getting “Mister Big,” but even if the government gets “Mister Big,” it’s not going to matter. Apple didn’t disappear after Steve Jobs died. Getting “Mr. Big” won’t win the drug war. As I pointed out almost a year ago, economist and drug policy expert Jeffrey Miron estimates that we would have a lot less violence without a war on drugs.

At the recent Association of Private Enterprise Education conference, David Henderson from the Naval Postgraduate School pointed out the myriad ways in which government promises to make us safer in fact imperil our safety and security. The drug war is an obvious example: in the name of making us safer and protecting us from drugs, we are actually put in greater danger. Without meaning to, the drug warriors have turned American cities into war zones and eroded the very freedoms we hold dear.

Freedom of contract has been abridged in the name of keeping us “safe” from drugs. Private property is less secure because it can be seized if it is implicated in a drug crime (this also flushes the doctrine of “innocent until proven guilty” out the window). The drug war has been used as a pretext for clamping down on immigration. Not surprisingly, the drug war has turned some of our neighborhoods into war zones. We are warehousing productive young people in prisons at an alarming rate all in the name of a war that cannot be won.

Albert Einstein is reported to have said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. By this definition, the drug war is insane. We are no safer, and we are certainly less free because of concerted efforts to wage war on drugs. It’s time to stop the insanity and end prohibition.

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Of course you make the choice, that’s obvious. The point is that you should have the choice to have marijuana without legal consequences. Your logic is essentially that drugs are bad because the government says so and thats just what you have heard. If we always listened to the government and never started any changes things would just always be the same. We would be a static society going nowhere. Go look up some statistics and actual information on marijuana and then compare alcohol to it and tell me which one you think is safer.

It aggravates me to know there are people in this world who do what they are told without question. when you hear drugs are bad you immediately assume it to be true. did it ever occur to you that drugs are not bad and that they should be legal? just because the government tells you something doesn’t make it true or just. what right does anyone have to tell me what I can or cannot do with my body? even if it causes death it doesn’t matter, everyone dies so lets have fun while were still alive.

DARE is another absolute waste of time. I went through DARE from 1st grade to 7th grade, and was a “helper” a good number of times.

What did it do for me? Nothing. I smoke cannabis because it is medicine and otherwise something that I enjoy doing. The same can be said about /anything that has any kind of effect on your person/ — including chocolate.

What DARE also did was put into my head a bunch of crap that no child should ever know about. I had nightmares as a kid from the stories that the idiot DARE cop would DELIGHT in telling us students.

I remember one about drunk driving, and the drunk had run into a tree – and the tree sliced through the center of the car “like a dull knife,” as the cop described while holding a crooked grin…

There is NOTHING that will prevent a human from doing what s/he wants to do – other than coercion or inability.

To not explore one’s world to the fullest extent is to be a worthless gnat and a brainless troglodyte.

All it comes down to is self-control and making sure that your responsibilities are taken care of.

Other than that, your job in life is to /be happy/. Screw people like “outside in” (nice name… did you think it up yourself?)

You are one of the biggest float-heads I have ever had the displeasure of bashing for the sake of clarity and truth. My friend, you are the sad misguided one. I apologize if your momma’ raised you in a Kentucky holler (actually that may have helped your case considering they grow tons of marijuana there) but you, the backwards one, look to the future and reflect on countless other countries policies and changing polices towards “The War on Drugs” and they will all sing in agreement that has been nothing short of Vietnam. Your pathetic. I hope your children are smoking pot right now. Happy 420, A-hole

It is illegal because a small group of individuals deemed it as such… lets say they attack candy next, because lets face it, sugar is bad for your health in excess quantities and also costs employers extra $ to fund dental and health insurance programs to combat the adverse affects of too much sugar. Do we start locking up all those who continue to satisfy their sweet tooth? It is a choice to do drugs, however, it is not a choice to fund the prisons these people are caged in. I personally do not want my tax dollars going to feed, cloth, and house those who are incarcerated, I would rather see it go to a more constructive cause. I’m sure its no mistake these people are doing drugs, you don’t just fall on a joint and get high on accident…. so they are not being prosecuted for a mistake, they are protesting laws/restrictions/labels that limit their right as an individual to choose what they consume or put in their bodies. I wonder how many people who denounce drugs drink alcohol? And in case you’re not aware, those labeled guilty now have a charge on their file, good luck trying to find a job after serving time! So, not only do we lock them up for recreational use and charges of possession or intent to sell, but after they do their time and pay their dues they are released into society where they have a black stain on them and are not even considered for jobs that give them the opportunity to support themselves, their families, and contribute to the economy. They wont be able to find a job and we will continue to pay for them via govt assistance and social programs. I would like to know your opinions on how the war on drugs has NOT failed if you think its such “crap” that people are pushing to end this war. People only receive the messages that they choose to hear, I’m sure everyone growing up was also warned to brush their teeth 2 times a day to avoid cavities and have good oral health but how many people actually do it?

You are obtusely failing to distinguish between the illegal/legal distinction, and the just/unjust distinction. They aren’t the same, and chances are you know that already. But just in case you don’t, consider that miscegenation (in case you don’t know, that’s a white and a black person getting married) was against the law, and to borrow a phrase from you, it was “AGAINST THE LAW,” and a “CHOICE”. Does that mean that interracial marriage is immoral? Pity the person who thinks so.

You don’t really give arguments for continuing the drug war as much as you just get really angry about drugs and type in all caps. This just serves to underscore how intellectually bankrupt the drug war is, since emotional appeals of varying coherence are about the best the drug war’s defenders can do.

Don’t be ridiculous. It is *absolutely* unjust imprisonment, even if there are laws on the books against drug use. Why? Because the laws themselves are unjust. Get it now? Or are you one of those people who believe that the law should be followed regardless of how bad it might be?

Example: let’s say that next year a new law goes into effect outlawing table salt because it’s bad for your health. You see this law as unjust, because you’re a human with a non-insane brain… yet you are unable to convince your policymakers to retract the law. Then you find some table salt in your home and put it on your soup. You are subsequently arrested, and imprisoned – your life is in tatters. I ask you: would that be justice? It is the law, after all. Or how about this: what if the law were to say that women can’t leave home without their husband’s permission? Would you see it as justice when they are locked up for failing to obey the law? In other words: is the law the only thing you care about? Or do you have any sense of justice on your own? I dearly hope you can use your own brain instead of blindly pretending that laws always equal justice or morality.

As for your point that taking drugs is a choice, yeah – it usually is. But here’s the thing: people should be free to make bad choices. Why would we allow people to choose to do things that may be bad for their health? Here’s a hint: it’s a little concept called *freedom*. You may have heard of it.